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MARCH 10,29, 2022 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 2015 | The Jewish Home
A Bourbon Produced in Israel? BY DONI COHEN
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srael – an ancient land of legends. It is almost impossible for one to walk for any length of time without retracing the steps of one legend or another. And this is certainly the case in the Ella Valley, where David slew Goliath, thereby creating an image which has been etched into our national consciousness and which continues to inspire our people through every national experience. It is here, in this bucolic valley, where Legends Distillery is producing Israel’s first “bourbon,” Slingshot. Patterned after a traditional Kentucky bourbon recipe with an innovative twist, Noam Cohen and Alan Cohl are taking what others have done for centuries, but doing it as no others have, producing a spirit that is unmistakably bourbonesque in character but one which rewards the drinker with a complex and layered taste heretofore unknown. Legends’ logo, depicting a colonial-era wagon wheel resting on an olive tree, sets the tone for their vision, one which combines American tradition with Israeli innovation. As Cohen says, “There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. We just want to take what others have been doing but do it much better.” And they are. “Slingshot pays homage to probably our greatest national legend, David’s unlikely triumph, which symbolizes Israel’s resurgence in the world against all odds. It is legends like this that inspire us to work harder and to achieve that which we might have thought impossible,” explained Cohen. The company plans further products in the years ahead, each one named for a different Jewish legend. The distillery has recently completed
its first bottling and plans to expand to several hundred stores in Israel by the spring, as well as the U.S. market very soon. Many orders have already been placed on the company’s website from the U.S.; Legends ships bottles every week overseas.
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oam Cohen made aliyah about nine years ago from Bergenfield, NJ, and still works in finance during the evenings, unless he’s running a tasting event or attending another at a local bar. Alan Cohl arrived in Israel 27 years ago from Queens and practices architecture and design, assisting many Americans who have purchased homes or vacation apartments in Israel over the years. For now, they’re holding onto their “main” jobs, and intend that, in the coming years, they’ll be devoting all their time to the distillery. Many of their production methods were geared to solve their main concern about how scotch drinkers might take to the new product. “Corn, while sweet, can come off as somewhat harsh to those who are used to scotch or Irish whiskey, which is made primarily from barley. Therefore, we decided to craft a mashbill consisting of a high wheat component. Wheat is a mellower grain, even creamy, and it helps soften the overall effect, while preserving the sweetness of the corn, even allowing the fruity notes of the wine from the barrel to show through. Indeed,” explains Cohl, “many of our initial customers have been lifelong scotch drinkers. Once they taste Slingshot, their initial reservations dissipate, and they find themselves asking if they can purchase a bottle.” Besides sales of its spirit through retail outlets as well as online, Leg-
